The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-26
On A WAR FOOTING.
GERMANY READY FOR A STRUGGLE
WITH FRANCE.


"A Country of Fighting Men and
Working Women Confidence in the
Result.
Mr. Frank r. Richardson, OF Baltimore.
who is one of the best known newspaper
writers in the South, writes as follows to
the Baltimore SIN, from Berlin: Ger
many is on a war footing. France is
on & war footing. Russia is on
war footing. Such ere the sentences
which frequently meet the eve of the
readers of European news in the United
States, but the meaning of which is but
dimly comprehended. 1t needs to see with
ones own eyes not the dead print which con
veys such intelligence, but the living,
moving evidences of European preparation
for hostilities, to comprehend and appreci-
ate what the term war footing" means.
Every country in continental Europe. great
and small is on a war footing Belgium and
Holland, with populations not much in ex-
cess of that of the State of New York,
have standing armies larger by thou
sands than the entire army of the United
States. And these two countries have en-
rolled on their reserve list fully one fifth of
their whole population, which reserves can
be put i'll the field in less than thirty DAYS.
The Netherlands are so situated that they
are in less danger from the cupiditv of their
neighbors than any of the other small States,
but this does not make them less sensible of
the force of the maxim, I'm time of peace
prepare for war" They do not know what
may turn up, and therefore believe in the
fullest measure of preparation. Belgium is,
perhaps, in the most critical condition of
any of the lesser Kingdoms, for the impress
sion is that a general European war would
inevitably result in a permanent infringe
ment upon its territory by the successful
combatantS.
WAR Is INEVITABLE
War is coming, not this year in ali proba-
biIity. perhaps not next year or the year af-
ter, but that it Is coming is the universal
sentiment all over the continent, and when
cannot be foretold. There is not a man in
this city who does not accept it as cetain
that Germany and France are to meet
again in the clash of arms and the feeling
is not less deep that this time the struggle
must be one to the death, with no hope left
to the vanquiShed of revival Such con-
test as is anticipated cannot end, it is
thought, without all Europe being drawn
in before its conclusion, even to Great Brit
ain, although it is quite sure that England
will let the others draw its chestnutS from
the fire so long as it can. "War footing'
means, ina Germany and France, half a
million of men for each country, fully
armed and equipped, drilled to perfection
and ready to grapple to the death at min
ute's notice Behind them are the re-
serves, including III the various classes
every male from IL to 60 years of age, all of
whom can be put into the field in a few
weeks. 1t means the most extensive system
of frontier defense that was ever devised:
the fertilization of all strategic points in
the two countries to the very last extent
haf nd Or ha
Prussians claim that they have drawn such
line of earthworks about Alsace and Lor-
raine, and so fortified and garrisoned the
important towns of the two provinces as to
battle any attempts at recapttire by the
French under the most favorable circum-
stances for an invading force. But they do
not concede the III y remote probability of
French success, and the war party in Berlin
say they will be satisfied with nothing less
than the destruction of French nationally.
The Rhine, along which | sailed for $50
miles, is fortified at every accessible point;
every town is heavi1y: garrisoned, several of
the more important places having a much
larger force of defenders than Lieut.. Gen.
Sheridan commands.
FIGHTING MEN AND WORKING WOMEN.
American tourists are so often struck at
the sight of women engaged in every kind
of manual labor. In all continental Europe
there is no species of unskiled labor that
women do not perform. This seems shock
ing to American tastes and Instincts, al
though among the peasantry the female
almost invariably seems equal in muscle
and endurance to the male. Civilization
and Christianity, it would seem. ought nat
urally by this time to have wrought a
change in the customs and ideas of the feu-
dial period. But it looks to me as if the
emancipation of the women of the humber
classes in Europe from the thraldom of serf-
dom is yet very distant. 1t suits kings and
potentates that women shall saw wood, shall
till the ground, shall follow the pillow or pull
it--shall in truth be veritable beasts
of burden for this enables
them to draw upon the entire
able bodied male population in furtherance
of their schemes and purposes. What
strengthens the custom is also the willing
obedience OF the women, for they have never
known anything else, and the taclt satisfac-
ton of their husband, fathers and brothers.
In war or in peace there is always certain
glamour about the uniform, a sword or a
musket. The peasant of Europe is very
much like the North American Indian. II
he is a soldier he thinks it beneath his dig
nifty to work, and if the women Of his house
hold can do everything while he is away to
the war, he thinks they can do it equally as
well when he is at home. This accounts
very much for the spectacle so constantly
witnessed and over which American ladies
never tire of venting their Indignation of
the men lolling around smoking pipes and
sleeping in the shade while the women are
toilinS under the burning sun of the harvest
field.
THE GERMAN WAR PARTY.
The war party in Germany is certainly
vsry influential and very numerous, and If
there is any peace party it keeps very quiet
This party is firing of waiting for France to
begin the contest Since the treaty of Paris,
France has not taken one stop i'll the way of
armament, fertilization, military or naval
preparation that Germany has not followed
with a similar one. That the two nations
have corps of open eyed spies in the heart
of each others territory is well understood,
and in the seventeen years there has been no
Improvement in light or heavy ordnance
adopted by one that the other has not been
almost instantly informed of it, and sought
at once to effect still further improvements
1t is asserted here that Germany has far
outstripped France in all successive
movements and this is the reason
why France has not taken the initiati' g.
France is awaiting TO begin the attack
until she shall be in better condition; this,
it is declared, shall never come to pass, and
popular clamor is that Germany shall not
bide the time of France but shall itself
bring on the contest. A German military
officer who participated in every battle OF